Thinking about buying comics

Interesting article here about why modern comic shops no longer tend to keep tables upon tables of back issue boxes.

It's saddening, in a way, because I have fond memories of the back issue days--the sense of weird accomplishment when you at last get to read that one issue you've been missing from a favorite storyline, the fun of bringing home a new stack of comics to file with your existing collection, the excitement when you finally find that specific issue you've been looking for for a few years. (Lacking a local comic shop, I actually did most of my comic collecting by mail, but I did get to a "real" store whenever we traveled.)

But that's pure nostalgia, and it isn't really something I miss all that much. For one thing, I'm older now and I have less spare time to spend hunting down that elusive issue of Avengers. Or, for that matter, to spend organizing my comics neatly into their boxes as new books come in. It was just a different time, a different way to feed the habit, and arguably no better or worse than what the market will be like once people figure it out this time.

What I'm thinking, as a consumer, is that it would be virtually impossible for a local comic store (if we had one, something that seems less and less likely all the time) to do more than simply supply me with the brand-new monthly comics I read. I can't really expect to walk into any store and find anything I'm looking for specifically, because there's too much material available. Someone who's going in to browse, who just wants something that looks interesting to read, they're probably going to find something.

I don't know that that's a lot of the comic market, though. I know that I generally have a pretty good idea of what particular thing I want--and that trip to Denver earlier this year, where I came home with a suitcase full of toys instead of books because even a big store didn't have the books I was looking for, just confirmed that for the most part a trip to a comic store is fun, and I might pick up something that looks neat, but it's not a replacement for ordering online what I really want.

See, I prefer to buy trades of back issues when I can get them.

But it's obvious that it was a lot easier, really, when actual floppy back issues were the order of the day, to be confident of being able to find something you wanted when you went to a comic shop. (For those of you who weren't around back then, this meant keeping a little notebook in your purse with a list of all the comic issues you were looking for, which you'd check off as you found them.) You probably wouldn't find everything on your list but you'd find some of it.

All I know is that I wouldn't want to be running a comic shop these days. I'm just not that smart.